Visco (Tolpis succulenta)
A common Madeiran composite subshrub whose milky root sap hardens into a rubber-like substance usable as a pencil eraser; also found on Porto Santo.
A subshrub 2 to 8 decimetres tall, with highly variable leaves (toothed, more or less cut, or linear and entire) and mediocre flower heads with yellow flowers. It belongs to the family Compositae, subfamily Liguliflorae. The milky sap that flows from the roots of the visco, once solid, has the elasticity and appearance of rubber, and can replace that substance for rubbing out pencil marks on paper. This is the only use of the Madeiran visco, nor can any other be found for it, since the quantity of sap produced by each plant is very small. The visco is a very common species in Madeira, and it has also been found on the Pico de Ana Ferreira (‘Ana Ferreira’s peak’), on Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’).
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Place
Places mentioned · 03
- Pico de Ana Ferreira
Porto Santo. Peak on Porto Santo where the plant was also found.
One of the main peaks of Porto Santo, 278 m high, in the south-south-east of the island. Wild olive (var. buxifolia) grows as a shrub on its rocks, and the plant visco (Tolpis succulenta) has also been found there.
- Porto Santo
Island where the plant was also recorded.
An island of the archipelago, settled alongside Madeira and forming one of the three captaincies. It has always constituted a single parish, dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Piedade, whose church was repeatedly sacked. The Elucidário records the Moorish pirate raid of 1617, its own Misericórdia and a rainwater channel built on this drought-prone island.